Eve (Taylor Plecity) has a pretty sweet job working for art dealer/gallery owner Vivian Stock (Eileen Dietz, The Exorcist and many, many more fright flicks) but things go from sweet to fuckin’ mega-sweet when the gallery takes on the wicked works of mysterious artist Sabian (Perish Dignam).
Created in a studio where one must be blind to even enter, Sabian’s works are coffin framed, morbid, and completely irresistible to the art buying public at large, so the work sells out faster than hell.
Speaking of “hell”, Sabian, unbeknownst to his faithful following, creates his masterpieces to further the aims of dark goddess Freda (Alexandra Bard) who feeds on the Satanic sexual desires stirred up by the artist’s paintings which she reciprocates with fame and fortune for our anti-hero.
As Eve become absolutely fascinated by the artist, she travels ever-deeper into Sabian’s world where she begins to discover that even her own soul may be forfeit to Freda’s dark demands… and Sabian may be powerless to save her!
Coming from late director Pearry Reginald Teo (who also directed the stellar adaptation of outlaw comic book artist Everette Hartsoe’s The Curse of Sleeping Beauty in 2016), Pale Horse is a Neo-Gothic thriller with a modern California aesthetic and it’s a heady, potent combination indeed!
As the narrative (penned by Ryan Brookhart, S. Wayne Durham, and Teo) unwinds, we are plunged head-first into a fever-dream world that on the surface seems prosaic enough, but once that sunshine veneer is peeled back reveals itself to be filed with Dionysian debauchery, blood-soaked orgies, bizarre animal masks, and plenty of supernatural spills n’ chills.
Adding immeasurably to the production are some solid performances, with Dignam giving of unearthly vibes a-plenty while still eliciting sympathy, and Plecity making for a wonderful Gothic heroine; ethereal, curious, and in over head in preternatural goings-on. Teo regular Bard (who also starred in the aforementioned The Curse of Sleeping Beauty as well as the director’s 2015 film Strange Blood) also shines as the goddess Freda; a she-demon that oozes menace and sensuality in equal measure!
All of the above is presented with plenty of psychotronic atmosphere that fills the screen with dark fairy tale aesthetics, elaborate costumes, blood, and writhing naked flesh which are even more emphasized by the more “normal” world Eve inhabits by day.
Surreal, sexy, and irresistible for lovers of Gothic terror tropes, Pale Horse is well worth taking a nightmare ride upon!
